Defining Us
by Bone Structure
Summary: Xena and Gabrielle dicuss Xena's pregnancy and their feelings... XenaGabrielle. Post Animal Attraction. Edited on 3/1/09.


_AN: Takes place after season five's Animal Attraction._**  
**

**Defining Us**

by Bone Structure

Xena slowly pulled her shift over her head and dropped it onto the ground. She was exhausted and did not care where the damned thing landed. Gabrielle watched her naked soulmate drag her lightly swollen feet across the room; more specifically, Gabrielle watched her soulmate's stomach. A small, but noticeable bump was growing.

Xena slide into the tub with a verbal sigh as the warm water relaxed her muscles. The two travellers had spent the last few days helping a small town rebuild after they had been attacked by a rather large group of thugs. Xena, as usual, had not found the time to relax.

"Got the soap?" she gave Gabrielle a playful smile.

Gabrielle passed the warrior a small, square bar, without looking her in the eyes.

"Something bothering you?" Xena asked. Recently Xena had noticed that Gabrielle was not quite the same around her. She never looked the warrior in the eyes anymore, and she shied away from the physical contact that was usually very common between them.

"Nope." Gabrielle sunk her body lower into the tub, going down until the water touched her chin.

"What is it?" Xena had known Gabrielle for much too long and much too well to believe her.

"Nothing." Gabrielle stood back up in the tub, until the water reached her shoulders. She fiegned a smile, and looked directly into her friend's icy blue eyes. Of course, the warrior princess was not fooled so easily. "Why do you ask?"

"Because something is wrong."

"Nothing is wrong."

Truthfully, Xena hated talking. She hated the metaphorical act of pulling teeth, and would much rather go with the physical process of doing so. She decided to the drop the subject for the moment.

"Can you get my back for me?" Xena asked weakly. She did not enjoy admitting that her pregnancy was a bit of a set back for her, but she was comfortable asking Gabrielle for help regardless.

"You're showing," commented Gabrielle, as she ran the soap down Xena's back. For a moment, the warrior could not respond, as she was distracted by the light scraping of Gabrielle's nails on her sensitive skin. The bard's soft hands were drawing trails of fire down her skin with her fingers, and Xena found that the activity was causing her lower body to tighten.

"You're showing," Gabrielle reiterated. Xena did not understand why she felt the need to repeat it.

"Is that what's bother you?" Xena asked, after a moment of thinking, trying hard to focus on the conversation and not on the fact that Gabrielle's hands had begun to massage her tense shoulders.

"I guess."

"Why, my love?"

Gabrielle blushed, Xena had recently begun calling her 'my love.' The bard loved hearing the words just pour of the warrior's mouth.

"... Are you sure you don't know who the father is?"

"Is this what it is about?!" Xena asked with much surprise and a bit of offense in her voice. She was getting a tad bit frustrated because Gabrielle's hands were doing amazing things to her, but she wanted them to be doing amazing things in another area of her body. "I haven't sleep with anyone Gabrielle, not in a long, looooooong time," she did not even bother to hide the arousal in her voice.

Gabrielle sighed out loud, not noticing the longing and lust that was coating Xena's words. Xena and Gabrielle had somewhat of a complicated relationship. Many people believed that the two were simply lovers, but they were not. And frankly, neither of them really knew why. It was a well known fact that they both loved each other, and by the way they acted it could easily be inferred that they were _in _love with each other.

"I would never do that to you," Xena whispered, just loud enough for Gabrielle to hear, "I would never sleep with anyone else."

Gabrielle stopped massaging the warrior, and instead she wraped her arms around her soulmate's waist. This was not uncommon for the two friends, they were naturally affectionate with one another, with and without clothing.

"Oooh, Gabrielle." Xena turned her body around to face the shorter woman.

"Are you sure you don't know? Positive?"

Xena could barely hold herself back from taking Gabrielle right there in the tub. Xena was exceptionally sensitive during her pregnancies, and she often found herself aroused by even the softest of touches.

Xena cupped the bard's face in her faces and lightly kissed her forehead, and then she moved on to other parts of the bard's delicate face, touching every inch of skin, just barely avoiding the bard's lips.

"Xena."

"Yes?" Xena stopped, afraid that she had somehow crossed a boundary with her friend, which seemed impossible, because Xena often kissed the blond in that way. "I'm sorry."

Gabrielle stood on her tippy toes and kissed the base of her love's neck, and then her collar bone.

"No, Xena, don't stop. I love it when you do that."

"Mmmm," Xena reaplied, too busy nibbling on Gabrielle's ear to respond properly.

"Are you sure? Maybe it's Ares."

"No, no, no, no. No! Ugh, never Ares. Never, ever, in anyway possible. Just, no." Xena immediately protested, "You're crazy! Have you been eating any funny nutbread lately?"

Gabrielle smiled, "Haha, very funny. And good, he better not be the father."

"Good?"

"Yes, good."

"Why?"

"He isn't allowed to touch you."

Xena raised her eyebrow, "Reeeaaaaally?"

"Mmmhhmm," Gabrielle pressed her faced against Xena's bare shoulder. Gabrielle's harden nipples scraped against Xena's skin. The warrior felt her lower body contract. R_elax, Xena, take it easy_,_ focus on her **words**_, _not her body,_ she thought privately.

"Why is that?"

Gabrielle looked up at her companion and smiled wickedly, "Oh, you know why."

"Maybe I don't!" Xena playfully protested, and moved away from the bard, and began running the bar of soap down her arms.

"Pass that soap!" Gabrielle tried to snatch the bar away from the taller woman, but Xena simply extended her arm and put it out of reach.

"Tell me why he isn't allowed to touch me, then maybe I'll think about giving it to ya," Xena winked. She knew why the god of war was not permitted to touch her, she knew why no one could touch her. Xena belonged to Gabrielle in the fullest sense of the word, body and soul.

"Because, he just isn't Xena... And are you _sure _you haven't? With _anyone_? Hercules maybe?"

"What if I had?" Xena joked, but the moment the words reached her lips she knew she had crossed a line and regretted it. Gabrielle frowned and backed away from Xena so fast water splashed out of the tub onto the floor. She put her hands on the rim of the tub, lifting herself to get out.

"No!" Xena took her naked love by the waist and pulled her back in.

"What Xena?!" Gabrielle yelled, with obvious anger in her voice.

"I didn't mean it."

"I'm sure that you didn't."

"I didn't." Xena bent down and kissed the back of Gabrielle's neck, so softly that the bard could barely feel it.

"You did, Xena." Gabrielle began to struggle and tried to move away from the warrior princess, even though it was secretly the last thing she wanted to do.

"No! I didn't! Don't tell me what I meant! I know what I meant!"

Gabrielle stopped moving when she heard Xena scream. She turned to face the blue eyed woman, and put her arms around her neck.

"Xena, what are we?" She whispered.

"What'dya mean?" Xena answer, even though she was well aware of the question's meaning.

"Us," Gabrielle looked into the warrior's eyes, "This. What it this?"

Xena shivered, somewhere in her she knew that this would come up. She didn't know what to say. She thought her feelings were so obvious, that it was almost stupid to say it out loud, and then she also felt nervous about were it could go. Gabrielle could still reject her, it was always a possibility.

"You know what this is."

"I don't!"

"You do."

"Xena... I wake up every morning with your arms around me. I bathe with you... I look into your eyes and I feel this... completion. I feel like every moment I've lived without you has been meaningless. You say that I'm your light, but you are my light, my dark. My everything. When you kiss me, you avoid all the places that need your kisses. And now you're pregnant, and I'm feeling like the stupid little kid whose been following you around, longing for you, when you've been sleeping around. And I thought you felt something too, until now."

Xena put her forehead to Gabrielle's and looked down with a face of pure longing and desire.

"Gabrielle, never. I couldn't. I can't even think about touching someone who isn't you. I don't know how I got pregnant." Xena moved in just a little bit closer. " I've been wanting you and only you. Gabrielle, I need you and only you, right now, right here."

And then the warrior princess leaned down, and kissed her bard where she really needed it.

**End. **


End file.
